Centerfest

[fivecats]

Centerfest Booths
October 2005 Durham, NC
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Two show postings in a row. Considering shows and prep-work for shows have been pretty much the only thing life has been about lately, I guess it's no surprise that my only postings lately are about them, too.

Back-to-back shows are typically something we try to avoid. They take a lot out of us: the weeks before and during are a blur of jewelry making and Banglemania where Bonn and I see each other only in passing, the cats are not happy with us at all and we're generally worthless for several days after the last show. Still, that's what our schedule called for, so that's what we did.

That's our booth on the left with a hint of Bonn behind the table and glass case. To our right, in the purple shirt, is our good friend Cementerry who helped to make the weekend far more enjoyable than it ever would have been otherwise.

There's lots more to see and read --...

Centerfest is a show in Durham, NC, about 40 minutes away from where we live. In the past it's been in the center of town, but thanks to roadway construction destruction the show was moved to another location, just a few blocks away -- but those few blocks put it in an entirely different section of town, changing it from a wandering tour along many shop-lined streets and the Durham Arts Center to a straight-lined "boardwalk" setup amid the old largely abandoned brick warehouses along the "American Tobacco Historic District". Add to that the fact that they moved the show from September to October (to avoid the rains that always seemed to come in that weekend in September -- that this year did not come that weekend in September but, instead, were certainly there in abundance this weekend) and we had just the kind of mix that an artist does not want to have surrounding a show.



Centerfest: Incoming Clouds
October 2005 Durham, NC
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Clouds like these aren't so bad, but it's those dark ones in the bottom left corner that you really don't want. Especially when the forecast has been calling for rain for most of the day anyway.

There's a particular rhythm to shows, a timing that seems to escape most show promoters. The people who were putting on Centerfest were new -- the festival has been going on for years, but it was the first year for this management group within the Arts Council to actually run the show. As such, they were the ones who made the change from September to October. The difference may seem subtle, but in terms of how well the show did, it made a big difference.



Centerfest: More Incoming Clouds
October 2005 Durham, NC
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This was more or less pointing in the same direction in the sky from our booth (I think), just a bit later in the morning.

There are a couple of things going on with scheduling a show. First you have Tradition. Now, I'm not going to go all Tevia on you and start extolling the virtues of Choosing a Trade and a Mate for your Children, but if you run a show on the same weekend of the same month for years and years, your city comes to expect it then. It becomes part of the accepted rhythm of the city. People expect it, people look forward to it -- at that time of the year. Mess with the timing and you really do have to all but start over from scratch to get people to remember it again.



Centerfest: Still More Incoming Clouds
October 2005 Durham, NC
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Panning to the left about the same time there was this gray wall of storms coming across the area from our left. Not a fun site. We started battening down the hatches in earnest about then.

Second, there's the matter of a person's mental and financial response to a show. During the Spring people are looking forward to The End of Winter, Getting Out of the House and Buying New Things. By the time Summer rolls around the money starts getting a bit tight as they start planning and saving for vacations. On the other hand, if you catch them while they're on vacation, they're a bit looser with their money.



Centerfest: A View From the Tracks
October 2005 Durham, NC
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The show, this year, was located on a street that runs parallel to a set of unused railroad tracks. The bridges over the highways are still standing, making for some potentially interesting photographs.

By September you can still catch some people with disposable income to spend. Come October people start getting a bit tighter with their money. In general. In areas where the wealthy hang out and/or have their summer homes, October can still be a good month. In a working class area, people aren't spending any more. It's too late for Summer money and too early for Christmas Shopping.

Add in a good rainy day and you can guess what our weekend was like.



Centerfest: A View of the Tracks
October 2005 Durham, NC
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We got a goodly amount of rain three times on Saturday. Each time it was followed by a bit of clearing, a bit of sun and even some blue skies. By the third shower we'd all figured it was the end of the day for us, despite it being a few hours until the show "officially" closed. Salvaging the day, we arranged to have dinner with Cementerry and two of our other friends at Joe and Jo's Downtown. Two margaritas and a dinner later Bonn was a much happier camper.



Centerfest: Brickwork
October 2005 Durham, NC
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The old buildings that we were set up around had some really nice architectural work done with the initial brickwork. I took lots of pictures trying to get "the right one" but never quite felt like I caught it. This one turned out more interestingly to me than the others because the angle makes it look flatter than most. Still, I don't think I got the image I was looking for.



Centerfest: 601 Brickwork
October 2005 Durham, NC
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Most of these buildings have had doorways and windows bricked over. Such was the case with the former entryway in the building we were set up in front of.



Centerfest: Chesterfield Dedication
October 2005 Durham, NC
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Sunday morning while the show was starting to get set up again, Brian, Cementerry and I walked down the length of the show. Brian had touted the fine Apple Bread Pudding one of the food vendors was selling, saying, among other things, that it balanced out the intense, awful bitterness of the coffee in the exhibitor's area. Instead of getting Bonnie that coffee, I knew that Fowler's, a ritzy gourmet place was just around the corner. As every ritzy gourmet place is required by law to have overly-expensive, better-than-average coffee, I figured it was worth the walk for her.

On the way down the street I saw this sign on the side of a building. It read:

"Dedicated to the Millions Who Smoke the Cigarette That Pleases, Chesterfield 1948"

Gotta love those cigarette manufacturers. Thanking their hapless addicts like that, kinda gets you right here, doesn't it? *cough*



Centerfest: Cementerry's Faces
October 2005 Durham, NC
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Cementerry is one heck of a nice guy. We've been set up across from him at the Eno for the past several years and being right next to him gave us the chance to goof off with him. Most of us who do the show circuit with him have at least one or two of his faces hanging somewhere in our gardens or back yards.

And if he gets his act together he's supposed to challenge me over at Pente.net. (I'm waiting...)

And here's an avatar of the Chthulu made just for my friend zombiefodder. Sure, it's isn't the best one in the world, but maybe, just maybe he'll use this one instead of the gold spray-paint huffing cat-shouldered whatever it is that he likes to use so often. (If you'd prefer it without the open peg holes, just let me know and I'll re-do it tonight)


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Comments

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Not a problem. I doubt I'd be interested enough to read it all if I hadn't written it.

(Okay, so actually, I didn't read it all in one sitting while I was proofing it. We're even!)

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[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

A really interesting vignette. Thanks T! And beautifully illustrated, too!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I like some of the images here, but not all of them. Most were far from the mark in terms of what I was hoping for. All were also taken far too quickly -- I kind of had other things competing for my attention. :-)

I'm glad you liked them, though.

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[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

This is great photoblogging. But is it me, or have your various shows this year been characterized by not the best werther conditions. That must be a bummer, mustn't it, when you work so hard for them?

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

We've actually had fairly good luck with the weather over the years and this year isn't too much of an exception. The last show I blogged about was as sunny and mild of a day as you could ever hope to do a show in.

I think it's more the luck of the blogging draw. The first show of the year was an intended photoblogging project and it just happened to rain (it usually does there, at least for a few minutes every show). This show was characterized by interesting clouds, so I thought about pulling the camera out. Once out, it tended to stay out or, at least, handy. (Cementerry would also occasionally point out interesting cloud formations for me)

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[zombiefodder.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the avatar. I hope you don't mind; I made a few modifications.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Actually, it made me laugh out loud. :-)

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[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

sorry to hear it was a washout weekend. after all your hard work. :-/
the first cloud is a beauty! wow.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

We didn't go home empty-handed. The rains kept away a lot of people as did the date-change, but we ended up with more than either of us had thought we'd made. (Which is particularly helpful)

We have another show at the end of the month. It's a three day show that is known to be a bangle-intensive show. So, while I'd rather have sold more bangles, this means I have less to make over the next two weeks or so. (Actually, it means I can slack off and not touch wire or my tools for several days longer)

I thought of all of you Off-Worlders when I took that image. It almost seemed like one of yours.

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[drood.livejournal.com]

Considering the number of art fairs I attend as a casual walker-througher, I loved reading about it from the other perspective.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

What? The long hours of sitting around, conjecturing on why people aren't spending money like they used to? Going "next door" to ask Cementerry if I can "sleep on his couch" after Bonn kicked me out of the booth? (I brought my own chair) Watching the oncoming grayness approaching like the Hellriders of Modor and knowing that sales are going to be even further off than you'd thought? Telling Cementerry to just say "Yes" to whatever questions people ask because it's really what they want to hear anyways and then smacking him not five seconds later when someone asked him if his faces were "Celtic" because he doesn't lie well? Having Bonn wake me up from a nap because I was snoring so loudly that the customers were laughing? (Okay, that happened a few shows ago and not this past weekend) Having to deal with the endless, mindless, repetative, brain-numbing "Community Drum Circle from Hell" in the parking lot just across from us all friggin' day long for two days in a row?

Personally, I'd prefer reading the second draft of "Peggy Sue Got Dumped Back In Time". Any day. Like this weekend. Or sooner.

Or was that too subtle?

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[drood.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's exactly what I enjoy reading about.

And I'm having doubts about farming out "Peggy Sue Meets Peggy Cass" because apparently I am the literary Kathie Lee Gifford and am running a proofreading sweatshop.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

According to who?

Do I need to go beat somebody up for you?

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[velvetslide.livejournal.com]

Isn't it strange what people do to buildings. There is an old brickworks in Adelaide {south Australia} that when it closed down they bricked it up exactly like the one in your photo.

Hope you sell more at the next market. Shame about the clouds rolling in. I enjoyed reading about the view from the "other side" - all that snoring you got in along with all the brain numbingness of it all. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. Do they haggle over prices there? Just wondering. I really like the tracks photo and the 3 brickworks photos following that. good work!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I think bricking over the doorways and windows is their way of trying to keep vandals and squatters out of the buildings. At least I hope it isn't their idea of an "artistic statement".

Naps are always good things. Bonn is continually amazed at my ability to sleep just about anywhere and in any situation. I've laid down in the back of the booth at a show once and slept on the ground. Usually I'm in a chair with my head barely propped up by my hand.

Drumming, on the other hand, is never good. It's usually an aural offence perpetrated by white boys in their early twenties with unwashed dreadlocks and straggly goatees who have smoked their way into believing that they're tapping into the Ancient Gia Rhythm of Nature and speading the Joy and Peace to be Found Therein to Everyone.

Bah.

I tend to look at it as paying off some bad karma in this life.

Glad you liked the images. I kinda like the train tracks as well.

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[zombiefodder.livejournal.com]

Drumming, on the other hand, is never good.

Beware of generalizations!

Come make those remarks at our taiko group and we'll drum you upside your head. :-p (But I mean that only in the nicest of ways.)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.

Your taiko, though, is organized drumming. My earlier statement should likely read

"Disorganized drumming, on the other hand, is never good"

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[fivecats.livejournal.com]

We end up doing about 12 to 15 shows per year, all from April or May through November. We're thinking that number will likely increase in the next year or so as the economy continues to decline.

We're also thinking that getting the wholesale end of things -- something we've discussed but done very little about -- is also going to be a necessity.

The website is, well, functional. Barely. It's still the same format and many of the same images that I first put up years ago when I was applying for a job at RIT -- Rochester Institute of Technology. They wanted to see a website I'd built, so I built that one. It needs to be completely updated and changed around and I'll probably be working on that during the first part of November. (Getting a shopping cart for the bangles is a necessity, for instance)

I'll make an announcement of some sort when it's done. (sort of) :-)

(Oh, and get well! You shouldn't be spending time reading my overly long entries when you could be well and outside photographing your world!)

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